This has been a unique year with different freelance opportunities. Some were good, and some were terrible. Honestly though, at least one of the terrible ones has given me fuel to make 2018 amazing and have the last laugh. Does that make me a terrible person? If so, eh. Who cares? 🙂
I’ve learned a lot about the freelancing world and how little respect can be garnered for writers. Random people on Amazon may not mind spending their free time to plagiarize reviews. One freelance company might do a rewrite instead of an edit. Another company might be so unprofessional that I suspect they actually posted their own positive review on Glassdoor because too many people griped about the company on the review site. Again, it might make me a terrible person, but I like seeing that Amazon was kind enough to remove those plagiarized reviews and that those two companies have since been searching for employees, as if they’re running low on writers because of their unprofessional and horrible tendencies. It does me good to know that even a little bit of justice happens in that way.
But what I’ve learned, overall, is that if you find a company that works for you through freelancing, hang on to that company with both hands because finding one that treats contractors with respect and courtesy is hard to come by. I wish I’d known how hard it was earlier so I could have given other opportunities a more thorough chance. I just didn’t know that so many companies would treat writers who create posts for their sites with such little dignity and so much disregard. People read what writers write, after all. That’s kind of important when your site is wanting readers.
I’m going to keep my eye out for companies to freelance with, but I’m going to keep my options open. I plan to enter into each possibility knowing it could fall to pieces so I don’t entrust too much of myself into it, and if it doesn’t, I plan to promote that company as much as I can for being such a rare gem.
Beyond that, I plan to try to carve myself a personal corner next year by starting a business by the end of the year, one that will be based on Etsy. I plan to craft quilts, dream catchers, and candles to start, with room to expand into other fields as well. I’ve already gotten my new sewing machine for the endeavor, and I’m very interested in diving into this opportunity throughout the new year. I’m even thinking of selling fresh fruits and vegetables, but we’ll see how this develops.
I’m going to try and make a point of keeping this blog more current with news about that store as well as possible future writing possibilities, but this post is just kind of touching base to let readers know 2017 will be different than 2018. I’m tired of pouring myself into projects for ingrates and jerks, so I’m going to focus on the opportunities that make me happy and can lead into creativity that can pay the bills. I guess, in essence, that’s the plan for 2018. I want to start on my way to business success in a new way, and I want to be happy. There’s no room for companies that make me miserable in that equation, and I need to just laugh off the immaturity of these previous opportunities and keep going. I mean, honestly. Posting a positive review of your own company in defense? When did you see Wal-Mart do that? So sad…
Anyway, the plan is for a new book to be out by Christmas of next year and for Hazel Rose Hollow (my Etsy shop) to be up and running by then as well. Cross your fingers with me that things go well!
Connie L. Smith 